Post by Mike Crawley on Jan 2, 2015 15:54:37 GMT -8
by Ken Jorgustin
Not all preps involve money! While money certainly helps, there’s a-lot to do with other aspects of preparedness which do not involve having money for ‘this’, ‘that’, and ‘the other thing.
Here’s what I mean:
Preps do not have to always be physically tangible (as in having a basement full of gear). There are lots of preps that are more important than gear. And it’s mostly what’s between your ears. Your noggin. Attitude and Skills.
Attitude
Attitude requires no gear whatsoever. Having the right attitude is huge, and may make the difference between success or failure in many situations. Here are a few attitudes that come to mind which I consider to be helpful…
Some of these are situational, meaning that there are some situations where it may be helpful (while others maybe not so much). But having any or all of these attitude traits at your disposal will potential provide the tools to benefit towards a positive outcome.
Confidence
Optimism
Healthy Skepticism
Rational, Logical
Patient
Open-minded
Happiness
Compassion
Humor
Humble
(add some more by leaving a comment…)
Attitudes are typically ingrained in us over time. It’s who we are and who we’ve become. I believe that it’s fairly difficult to change the general attitude of who we are – but a conscious awareness of any negative or bad attitude traits could help an effort of change.
Attitudes can help tremendously while dealing with other people. Attitudes can make huge differences under stress and survival situations. You might have all the survival gear in the world, but fail, due to an attitude which stops your progress of survivability.
Skills
This is an enormous category which typically (but not always) compliments tangibles, such as specific tools and gear. The VERY important notion here is that gear without SKILLS is nothing. Skills enable you to IMPLEMENT ACTION. If you have the skill (to do something) you don’t necessarily need the tools or gear because perhaps someone else has it – and you can leverage your skills to use their tools to accomplish the task. Skills are #1.
More than just ‘knowing’ a skill or skills, you need to actually do it – successfully.
How many of you are guilty of this… buying some piece of gear and never actually using it. I have been guilty of this in the past. I now make a conscious effort to actually do something with it. To practice or use the gear (whatever it’s purpose). You will be amazed as to what you might find (that you didn’t know.
You may think that you know how to do something (maybe you’ve read lots of books and/or articles on the subject), and you may even be correct in your thought process of what to do (with the tools or gear and procedures), but until you actually get your hands on it under real world conditions and ‘do it’…
Maybe it’s something you’ve done long ago and you figure that you can easily do it today. Let’s say, building a fire. When’s the last time you actually went out and built a fire from scratch (without dousing with lighter fluid)? You may be surprised. Practice makes perfect. Granted, some skills are hard to lose, although others require constant honing.
I could begin listing all sorts of practical preparedness skills and use up another 500 words in this article, but you get the idea…
Comments?
Not all preps involve money! While money certainly helps, there’s a-lot to do with other aspects of preparedness which do not involve having money for ‘this’, ‘that’, and ‘the other thing.
Here’s what I mean:
Preps do not have to always be physically tangible (as in having a basement full of gear). There are lots of preps that are more important than gear. And it’s mostly what’s between your ears. Your noggin. Attitude and Skills.
Attitude
Attitude requires no gear whatsoever. Having the right attitude is huge, and may make the difference between success or failure in many situations. Here are a few attitudes that come to mind which I consider to be helpful…
Some of these are situational, meaning that there are some situations where it may be helpful (while others maybe not so much). But having any or all of these attitude traits at your disposal will potential provide the tools to benefit towards a positive outcome.
Confidence
Optimism
Healthy Skepticism
Rational, Logical
Patient
Open-minded
Happiness
Compassion
Humor
Humble
(add some more by leaving a comment…)
Attitudes are typically ingrained in us over time. It’s who we are and who we’ve become. I believe that it’s fairly difficult to change the general attitude of who we are – but a conscious awareness of any negative or bad attitude traits could help an effort of change.
Attitudes can help tremendously while dealing with other people. Attitudes can make huge differences under stress and survival situations. You might have all the survival gear in the world, but fail, due to an attitude which stops your progress of survivability.
Skills
This is an enormous category which typically (but not always) compliments tangibles, such as specific tools and gear. The VERY important notion here is that gear without SKILLS is nothing. Skills enable you to IMPLEMENT ACTION. If you have the skill (to do something) you don’t necessarily need the tools or gear because perhaps someone else has it – and you can leverage your skills to use their tools to accomplish the task. Skills are #1.
More than just ‘knowing’ a skill or skills, you need to actually do it – successfully.
How many of you are guilty of this… buying some piece of gear and never actually using it. I have been guilty of this in the past. I now make a conscious effort to actually do something with it. To practice or use the gear (whatever it’s purpose). You will be amazed as to what you might find (that you didn’t know.
You may think that you know how to do something (maybe you’ve read lots of books and/or articles on the subject), and you may even be correct in your thought process of what to do (with the tools or gear and procedures), but until you actually get your hands on it under real world conditions and ‘do it’…
Maybe it’s something you’ve done long ago and you figure that you can easily do it today. Let’s say, building a fire. When’s the last time you actually went out and built a fire from scratch (without dousing with lighter fluid)? You may be surprised. Practice makes perfect. Granted, some skills are hard to lose, although others require constant honing.
I could begin listing all sorts of practical preparedness skills and use up another 500 words in this article, but you get the idea…
Comments?